


Never Give Up

by mldrgrl



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 16:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4927066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mldrgrl/pseuds/mldrgrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post IWTB little scene in the unremarkable house.  Scully comes home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Give Up

 

Scully quietly entered the front door and set her bag down in the entryway.  She removed her coat and hung it on the hook next to the door and then removed her gloves and boots.  A delicious aroma wafted from the kitchen, luring her in.  The sizzling sounds and low hum of Mulder’s singing would have drawn her in, even if her nose hadn’t.

 

Standing in the doorway, Scully took a few moments to watch Mulder at the stove, his back to her, poking at a frying pan with a wooden spoon.  Every so often he turned the spoon up to his mouth like a microphone to quietly sing a few bars of Journey’s _Open Arms_ playing on low volume from the radio on the counter.  He swayed slightly to the slow beat of the song, making Scully smile. Mulder wasn’t much for music when he concentrated on a task, but he could tolerate background noise as long as it was quiet enough.  It reminded her of the many car rides they’d spent arguing over radio stations. Scully liked classical, Mulder liked classic rock.  They usually compromised on the oldies or NPR.

 

Scully slid across the kitchen, noiseless in her socks, and wrapped her right arm around Mulder’s waist, while her left hand came around and settled over his heart.  She felt the twitch in Mulder’s muscles against her cheek as he straightened in surprise, but then relaxed and covered her hand with his own, holding it to his chest as he picked up the slow rhythm of the song again, which didn’t amount to more than the shifting of his weight from one foot to the other and a lazy, very minimal twist of the hips.  Scully shuffled her feet to let him lead in what could hardly be called a dance.

 

“I wasn’t expecting you,” he said, scraping the spoon across the frying pan.

 

“I know.”

 

“Are you hungry?”

 

Scully shook her head against his back. She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek against the softness of his sweater.  Mulder ran his thumb up and down the inside of her own and continued to cook.

 

“What’re you making?” Scully asked.

 

“Stir fry.”

 

“It smells wonderful.”

 

“There’s enough.”

 

“I don’t think I can eat.”  Scully felt the twist in Mulder’s shoulders and knew he had turned his head back to look at her, but she kept her chin down and her eyes closed. He gave her hand a squeeze.

 

“Everything go okay?” he asked.

 

“I’m hopeful,” she answered.

 

Mulder ran his hand down her arm and back up. The song on the radio faded and another started.  Scully’s lips curled just slightly in amusement.  She recognized it immediately as Air Supply’s _All Out of Love_.  The song had been a soundtrack to her sister’s many break-ups in high school.  Scully’s smile fell and she curled her hand at Mulder’s waist, clutching his sweater in her fist.

 

“Why are you listening to sad songs, Mulder?”

 

“You just missed happy hour.” Mulder reached over and turned off the radio.

 

“Mulder, I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s only Air Supply.”

 

“I was unfair to you.”

 

“Did you come all the way out here just to say that?”

 

“No.”

 

Mulder turned the stove off and laid the spoon down on the side of the frying pan.  He rotated them both away from the stove and turned to face Scully, leaning back against the counter as he wrapped his arms around Scully.  She tipped her chin up and rested it against his chest as she looked up into his eyes.  Mulder laced his fingers together at the small of her back.

 

“What I asked of you wasn’t fair,” Scully said. “You couldn’t walk away from someone who needed help any more than…”

 

“Than you can walk away from that boy,” Mulder finished.

 

Scully nodded.

 

“So why are you here?” he asked. “Why aren’t you at the hospital?”

 

“Because there isn’t anything more I can do today and all I wanted to do was come home to you.”  Scully felt a sting in her nose and her eyes grew wet. She licked her lips and dropped her head to press her cheek to Mulder’s chest.  It was a rare thing for her to admit to herself that she needed Mulder, and even rarer to admit to him, but it was the truth and he deserved to hear it.

 

“Scully…” Mulder enveloped Scully completely in his embrace, stroking her hair with both hands.

 

“You needed me and I wasn’t there,” she said. “I’m sorry for that.”

 

Scully held on to Mulder and let her tears fall silently onto his sweater.  She had been afraid that Mulder’s passion for investigation and justice would reignite itself and of what it would lead to, but giving him an ultimatum was the stupidest thing she had ever done.  She knew he would refuse to accept it, and it only hurt him by doing so. It hurt both of them. The truth was, she was glad to see that spark of purpose back in his eyes, she only wished she could share it.

 

“Do you want to go back?” Scully asked.

 

“Back where?  To DC?”

 

“To the FBI.”

 

“You’re really asking me that?”

 

Scully lifted her head again to gaze up at Mulder. She honestly didn’t know the answer. Mulder put his hands on Scully’s face and brushed the wetness from her cheeks before dropping his arms and lacing his fingers again over her tailbone.

 

“There are things I miss,” he said. “It was always interesting. It was always challenging. You were always wonderfully predictable at calling me crazy every time I had a theory you disagreed with…which was every time I had a theory, I’d like to point out, but Scully, I can get the same level of challenge and verbal sparring from a night of Scrabble with you.”

 

Mulder gave Scully a little smile and bumped her hip with his own.  The corner of one side of her mouth lifted, but she didn’t feel able to offer more than that.

 

“But, it was always dangerous,” Mulder said. “There was always so much opposition. So much was lost for both of us.”

 

Scully ran through a list of names in her head, but let them go unspoken. 

 

“I could never deal with the bull shit again, Scully. Could you?”

 

“No, I can’t.  Which is why I handed in my resignation at the hospital today.”

 

“You quit?”

 

“It’s an eight week notice.  It will give me time enough to finish Christian’s treatments. But, like you said, I’m tired of the opposition.”

 

“What do you want to do?”

 

“This morning you said you’d take me away, that we’d get out of here.”

 

“Wherever you want.”

 

“Somewhere warm.  Somewhere by the water.”

 

“You tell me when you want to go, and we’ll go.”

 

Scully nodded and laid her head on Mulder’s chest again while she wrapped her arms around him fully.  She was so tired.  She could stand there encircled in Mulder’s embrace all night, but she should shower and let Mulder eat.  She had to be back at the hospital in less than ten hours.  She reluctantly pushed away from Mulder and turned to leave the kitchen, but Mulder reached for her arm and pulled her back.  He held her face, looking down at her, though his eyes seemed to focus on her chin.

 

“Scully, the year we spent apart, do you remember what that was like?”

 

Scully opened her mouth, but didn’t trust her voice. She nodded.  By silent agreement, the year after William’s birth was a subject they just did not talk about.  It was far too painful for casual conversation.

 

“I couldn’t do that again,” he said. “You’re as necessary to me as air.”

 

Scully almost hated how easy it was for Mulder to find creative ways to tell her he loved her.  She had gotten better at it over the years, but expressing her feelings was still a struggle for her.  Another woman probably had a perfect response at the tip of her tongue, just waiting for a moment like this to use it.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and moved up on her toes to be as close to him as possible.  He held her tightly to him, almost lifting her from the ground.  She pressed her mouth to the back of his jaw for a long moment and then moved her lips to his ear.

 

“Marry me,” Scully whispered.

 

Mulder raised his head and pulled his neck back, staring at her with wide eyes.  He had been casually suggesting getting married for the last six years and Scully had rejected the idea with logical arguments against it.  The risk of exposure was nothing compared to the risk of her heart, and the excuses were just excuses.  If Mulder saw through them, he didn’t press, but it had been awhile since he’d asked and she assumed he’d given up the idea, even though she knew it was something he wanted.

 

“Marry me,” Scully said again, looking directly into his eyes.

 

Mulder cocked his head a little and pursed his lips. He looked poised to say something, but a smile replaced whatever words were about to come out of his mouth. She remembered the same look in his eyes when he’d kissed her at midnight on New Year’s Day at the start of the millennium.  He’d looked pleasantly surprised and she’d had to fight to look into his eyes when what she really wanted was for him to just touch his lips to hers again in the same sweet, gentle way he’d just done.

 

“Mulder?”

 

“Aren’t you supposed to get down on one knee and ask?” Mulder answered.

 

Scully humored him by relaxing all her muscles and starting to slither through his arms by first lowering her heels to the floor and then bending her knees.  Mulder quickly hoisted her back up to him and covered her mouth with his. She couldn’t help but smile into his kiss and touched her fingers to his cheeks.  Mulder broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers.

 

“A thousand times yes, Scully.”

 

“I’ll never give up on you, Mulder.”

 

The End


End file.
